News + Events

Marketing Basics for Artists: January - April 2013

Posted: 2012-12-17

Marketing Basics for Artists – January – April 2013

Workshops takes place on the second Wednesday of every month at 6pm in Osher Hall at Maine College of Art. Admission is free for current students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The fee for all others is $10.

MECA Wins Winter Window Walk Competition

Posted: 2012-12-09

Under the guidance of MECA Graphic Design professor, Samantha Haedrich, MECA Graphic Design students collaborated with organizers of the annual Holiday Sale to produce the visual identity for this year's event. An important aspect to this assignment included dressing MECA's large window facing Congress Street in anticipation of the holidays.

Watch the video below to see the behind the scenes of the creation of this year's holiday window.

Using community service as currency was the concept behind the Yankee Swap Pop Up Shop on Free Street during last friday's Art Walk. The one-night-only shop sold handmade goods and art created by MECA students, purchased in exchange for volunteer time.

Next ProDev Series hosted on December 12 in Osher Hall: Tax Essentials

Posted: 2012-12-06

The next workshop in the Professional Development Series is Tax Essentials. This series of workshops on business basics for artists is presented by Creative Portland, Maine College of Art, and Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts with generous funding by the Quimby Family Foundation.

A panel of three professional presenters will bring practical information to artists and small businesses about how taxes work and how to get them done efficiently and smartly. Topics will include recordkeeping, setting up books, sales tax, deductions, hobby loss rule, expense tracking and more.

Presenters include:

Caren-Marie Michel, Artist and MECA Alum

Tom Gangewer, partner at Local Economy

Justin Coffin from at Macdonald Page & Co LLC

The workshop takes place at 6pm in Osher Hall at Maine College of Art. Admission is free for current students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The fee for all others is $10.

On Dec. 8th at 7PM, the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art will host Middle Eastern Ensemble ALHAN, created and driven by Arabic singer Madeline Hanna and Tom Kovacevic formerly of Cerberus Shoal and Tarpigh. Alhan will perform a concert of Turkish and Arabic music featuring violin, oud, darbuka and nay.The members of Alhan have studied with master teachers from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, bringing varied musical backgrounds to their interpretation of Middle Eastern Music. They offer a truly rare opportunity to experience the rich and beautiful traditions of the Middle East.

The Institute of Contemporary Art Gallery at Maine College of Art will host ALHAN as part of The World Over , 2012 MECA Faculty Exhibition.

Future Mothers, Tent /Text /Totem is a book in the form of a tent. Made entirely of hand-dyed, hand-printed cloth, the tent is a contemplative space within a space. Printed fragments were sewn into an impermanent dwelling based on nomadic Bedouin tent forms.

Kinsella & Jabar tell a story using an index of images. The exterior walls read as a lexicon, giving keys to the sprawling murals of creation, destruction and rebirth that cover the interior walls of the tent. The texts and totems serve to mark and further inform the narrative.

This project was made possible with the assistance of the ICA, Maine College of Art BFA Students & Alumni, Stitch Gatherings & Z fabrics.

Elizabeth Jabar's background is rooted in Waterville's Lebanese community. Cultural symbols and references to the Middle East are spread throughout her alarmingly beautiful work. Her books and works on paper are part of NY Center for Book Arts 2013 Symposium on Books.

She is Assistant Dean, Chair of Printmaking & Public Engagement at MECA.

Colleen Kinsella's interest in temporary nomadic structures like Beduoin tents, stems from her experience with various musical groups like Cerberus Shoal, Fire on Fire and Big Blood. She has toured and exhibited throughout the US and Europe since 1999 with her printmaking, installations,and performances. Her work was featured in the 2011 PMA Biennial and she is an Instructor at MECA

This work was created in the last 6months but culminates over 11 years of working alongside each other in MECA's Printmaking Department for over 10 years.TO SEE MORE images of the tent in-progress go to:

All ICA Events at MECA are FREE and open to the public.Future Mothers will be selling beautiful hand printed posters and ephemera to support the event.Future Mothers, Tent /Text /Totem is part of The World Over, 2012 Juried Faculty Exhibition at Maine College of ART.Please contact ICA Director Daniel Fuller for more details @ dfuller@meca.edu or 1.800.699.1509Maine College of Art • 522 Congress Street • Portland, Maine 04101 ••

Geary's Brewing Company Hosts Design Competition

Posted: 2012-12-01

Each year, the D.L. Geary Brewing Company hosts a competition on campus for the design of the packaging for the Geary's Summer Ale. All undergraduate students are allowed to submit a design. The winning design is then featured on the labels of one million bottles of beer, as well as on the six-pack and 12-pack boxes. The student with the winning design is awarded $5,000. This year, there were more than 60 entries to the contest. The winner is selected in January and works with Geary on bringing the concept to production for a launch in late spring. See all the entries.

MECA Student Wins Royal Majesty Drag Competition

Posted: 2012-11-27

Jake Michaud, Junior Woodworking & Furniture Design major and Public Engagement minor, came in first place 13th Annual University of Southern Maine Royal Majesty Drag Competition and Show on Friday, November 16th, 2012. In his first drag performance ever, Jake transformed into diva "Betweenya Thighs" and electrified the audience by lip-syncing and dancing her heart out to Beyonce's "Move Your Body. Betweenya received a standing ovation from the 700+ crowd housed in the Holiday Inn By the Bay's Grand Ballroom.

The event is held annually and is open to any student competitor attending an accredited college or university in Maine. Betweenya is MECA's second champion in the history of the event. Jelly Jacobs(Aaron Decker '12, Metalsmithing & Jewelry Alumni) won top honor in 2010.

As part of winning duties, Betweenya performed again at the 14th annual event on November 22nd, 2013 at the Holiday Inn by the Bay. This year's event raised $4,000 for USM's Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity.

Maine Type Lab, First Friday Vote Button Booth

Posted: 2012-11-12

Maine Type Lab, First Friday Vote Button BoothProvoke the Vote

Maine Type Lab members designed a series of buttons for October First Friday at Maine College of Art as part of the “Provoke the Vote” event. The buttons were handed out to the public and passersby were encouraged to customize their buttons with their political beliefs. Students created over 50+ designs and distributed nearly 500 buttons to the public, for free.

Maine Type Lab received support from Public Engagement, who purchased the button supplies and invited us to participate.

Professional Development Workshop: Pricing and Valuing Your Artwork

Posted: 2012-11-09

The next workshop in the Professional Development Series is Pricing and Valuing Your Artwork. This series of workshops on business basics for artists is presented by Creative Portland, Maine College of Art, and Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts with generous funding by the Quimby Family Foundation.

THE WORLD OVER: MECA Faculty Exhibition on View at the ICA through December 22

Posted: 2012-11-07

The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art (ICA at MECA) in Portland will present the exhibition The World Over through December 22, 2012.

Featured artists include Jeffrey Clancy (Metalsmithing & Jewelry), Elizabeth Jabar (Printmaking) and Colleen Kinsella (Printmaking), Adam Manley (Woodworking & Furniture Design), and Gail Spaien (Painting). All are current faculty members of the BFA program at Maine College of Art. The World Over is the sixth in MECA’ s series of juried thematic faculty exhibitions. This exhibition was juried by Amie Scally, Deputy Director/Curator of White Columns, New York.

Elizabeth Jabar is a print based artist and her hybrid works on paper explore ideas of ethnicity and heritage. In her printed assemblages and artists books she displays a highly personal visual language, incorporating cultural motifs from folk art, religious traditions and textiles. Her works have been shown at galleries and museums nationally and internationally, including Victoria Arts Connection, Victoria, BC, Canada, National Gallery of Art, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Pyramid Atlantic, Rhode Island School of Design, Montserrat College, Colby College Museum of Art, The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, The Center for Maine Contemporary Art, University of New England, La Jolla Fiber Arts, La Jolla California, New York and The Center for Book Arts, New York, New York. Her work was recently published in 50/ 50 A Survey of Contemporary Printmaking.Work»

Colleen Kinsella’s primary focus is split between printmaking and music. Her work has been published on over twenty-five album covers. She and her partner, who are known for their one-of-a-kind art and music production, began the group Big Blood and started Dontrustheruin Records out of their home. Her work was selected for this year’s Biennial at the Portland Museum of Art and was featured on the catalogue cover. She has shown at the International Print Center in New York; Dean Johnson Galley, Indianapolis, IN; Seattle’s Wall of Sound, Columbia College, Chicago, IL; and the Southern Graphics Council, Chicago, IL.

Adam Manley earned his BA in International relations and Political science from the State University of New York at New Paltz, with a studio art minor focused on furniture making and design. During this time, Adam worked assisting local furniture makers and sculptors, and maintained his own commission and exhibition based studio practice. He recently finished his MFA in Furniture and Wood at San Diego State University, focusing primarily on large scale sculptural works. Adam has also studied and assistant taught at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deere Isle Maine. His work has recently been exhibited widely in the San Diego CA area, including exhibitions at the San Diego Museum of Art, The Oceanside Museum of Art, Art Produce, and the SDSU Downtown Gallery. Adam has also exhibited work in Texas, New York, and Boston. Work»

Gail Spaien has been granted numerous awards and fellowships including the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Artists Advancement Grant, the Maine Arts Commission Good Idea Grant and Artist Visibility Grant, the Djerassi Foundation Resident Artists Program in Woodside, CA, Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, NY and, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Gail's exhibitions include the DeCordova Museum of Contemporary Art, in Lincoln, MA, Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, ME, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, in California, Crocker Art Museum, in Sacramento, CA, the Portland Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine, and the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine. She is represented by Aucocisco Gallery in Portland, Maine, Miller Block Gallery in Boston, MA and the William Scott Gallery in Provincetown, MA. Work»